'Emerging Masters 2021' Debuts At Laguna Art Museum

LAGUNA BEACH, CA—"Emerging Masters 2021" is best experienced in person at the Laguna Art Museum. Within each painting, discoveries abound in the oil, watercolor and pastel pieces that are obscured in their digital versions. The show was recently installed in the museum's downstairs gallery. With plenty of space in between each work to allow for social distancing. combined with timed entry into the immaculate facility, visitors can enjoy the art by Laguna College of Art + Design MFA students without worry. At this time, though Orange County entered the Yellow Tier of Gov. Newsom's Blueprint for a Safer Economy on Wednesday, masks are still required for entry.

Seeing Renae Wang’s 3-by-4-foot “Diner Window” in person caused a sudden shift in perception. The brightly lit figure with a strawberry milkshake isn’t a reflection; she’s outside on the sidewalk. The viewer has been placed inside the closed diner, which is bathed only in the glowing red of the illuminated “OPEN” sign. Wang accomplishes a deft inversion that captures the topsy-turvy year we've lived, with a sophistication that should remain relevant beyond the pandemic.

All the spring semester courses at LCAD were virtual, according to exhibition curator and chair of LCAD's MFA painting and drawing program, Peter Zokosky.

“About a third of the students worked in their private studios provided by LCAD,” he said, “due to COVID the others worked from home.” Zokosky is optimistic that by fall, classes will return to the studios.

The pandemic gets an immediate reference in a series of pastel nudes tucked away at the back of the gallery. Mark Silverberg’s subject wears nothing but a protective mask while holding her long-haired black cat. In “LA COVID” by Tracy Child, the multi-lane boulevard is empty, the crosswalk devoid of people, the glass buildings reflect only tall palms, no helicopters, drones or planes. It’s ambiguous whether “LA” in the title is Los Angeles or a feminine article for the coronavirus.

An intriguing ambiguity emerges in many of the paintings.

Pamela Wells' "Butterfly Goddess" writhes to free herself, which evokes a natural metamorphosis as well as the plight of endangered monarchs. The unfamiliar dessert world depicted in "Ritual" by Kelly Jane Smith-Fatten has saccharine undertones expressed in the hunched shoulder of the central figure, who wields a spoon from which a waterfall of sugar descends into the rising steam of a coffee mug. Symbols carved into cookies hint at secret agendas. Is he sweetening our world or poisoning us?

A coiled-to-strike green rattlesnake and a Western pistol float on a black field, surrounded by a jagged yet festive border in Agostino Vaccaro's oil painting, "Shoot From the Hip." The images allude to the never-ending gun deaths in America, while the title asks us to tell the truth.

"Hesitation" and "Surrender" by Jody Gerber and Kelley Mogilka, respectively, spark mysteries. Each depicts brief moments that become mythic as viewers wonder who is hesitating, who surrenders. What is the hand hiding in the pocket? Does the shadow of a weed on the woman's bare foot clarify whether she, the man, or the couple is surrendering?

Both watercolors in the show defy expectations for the medium by containing minimal white space and utilizing fields of solid color in dark hues. Brian Blasman's "The Accident Lawyer Knows Best" is a night scene with a black sky; in "Her Embrace," Xiaohan (Nora) Xu tucks her figure in a closet, curled up beneath a wardrobe of somber tones.

"Jardin" by Jill Maytorena transcends its materials, making an indelible impression. In soft pastels on panel, the subtle work has a tremendous impact.

All the works from these emerging masters are worthy of a closer look.

“About half the exhibiting students will be returning in the fall,” Kovosky said, “while the others are graduating; but in all cases, the artworks are part of an ongoing investigation.”

Here's to the artistic promise of the graduating classes of 2021—and 2022.